Print Powers On In Industry Awards

A
small specialist printing company in Birkenhead on the North
Shore has shown that the “small guy” can aspire to be
the top of the pile by taking out the Supreme Award at Pride
In Print 2014 -- with every judge giving it ten out of
ten.

The winning entry was a set of fine art “2 Colour
Letterpress Prints” from GTO Printers. The job also won
the Specialty Products Category and the Letterpress Process
Award for the Birkenhead firm.

Pride In Print is the
showpiece event of the industry, which contributes $1.6
billion to the economy and involves around 10,000 people.
About 700 attended the Awards at the Sky City Convention
Centre on Friday night (subs: May 23), as the awards adopted
a new slogan of “Power In Print”.

The Supreme set of
four prints, done in black and brown on a 47-year-old
one-colour press, were so artistically stunning that they
won unanimous approval from the judges for craftsmanship,
technical mastery and high-art appeal.

Comments from
judges included: “… it doesn’t get better than this
… a brilliant retention of the finest details,
particularly considering the impact process in the press…
stunningly beautiful prints … an amazing job.”

Judge
Symon Yendoll said: “In all my years as a Pride In Print
judge I have never seen any entry with so many positive
comments from judges -- everyone gave it ten out of
ten.

“If you are talking about craft achievements, this
is unbelievable. Craft-wise, letterpress is as hard as it
gets.

“The level of detail is incredible. In one print,
one of the bird’s eyes is open. It is tiny, like a
pinprick -- and yet it is as clear as can be. That is
extremely difficult to do.

“The end result is a virtual
3D effect.”

The irony was that GTO Printers principal
Graham Judd, whose artistic leanings inspired the work, was
not there to receive the award. Mr Judd is turning 65 and he
took his family to Manhattan Island as a treat. He left
assistant manager Jane Caine to take over the business when
he was gone -- which meant Ms Caine stepped on the stage to
receive the ultimate print award.

“It is a wonderful
reward -- I have worked for Graham for 19 years and he is so
passionate about printing,” said Ms Caine.

“He’ll
never retire -- he loves it! He saw the potential for
letterpress printing, saw a niche market for it with wedding
invitations and ran with it and developed it. He went to the
wedding shows, loved it and set up this letterpress
exhibition.

“He had a letterpress machine and just went
for it. People also loved it and wanted it regardless of the
cost.

“When I saw this I just went ‘wow’. It
encompasses, history, craft and passion. That’s all I can
say --
‘wow’!”

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